In the early hours of the night, Team FORT relaxes in their dormitory, dressed casual and on their way to bed. For Twilight, she is wearing a pair of purple, star studded pajama pants with a light blue shirt, and she is sitting on her bed, back against the wall, reading a very thick book with a worn spine and wrinkled pages. Octavia is wearing nothing but a long, gray dress shirt, exposing her slender legs and is setting up an iron-board next to her bed, which has a pile of clothes on it. Then there is Rainbow Dash. She is laying on the floor, in just a sports bra and shorts, grunting and puffing and abs flexing with every crunch she does.

“How come. Flash is. Getting. Home. So late. All the time?” asks Rainbow Dash between her disciplined breaths.

Octavia delicately lays out a gray, long sleeved blouse on her iron-board. “He's probably studying with Thorn.”

“But. I thought. They hated. Each other,” says Rainbow Dash. She flops on her back, panting and beads of sweat rolling off of her shiny, toned and smelly body. “Besides, we got that field trip tomorrow, so we kinda need him to not fall asleep on us.”

“I'm sure Flash knows exactly what he's doing,” says Twilight coldly without looking up from her book.

With the hot iron in hand, Octavia raises a brow quizzically at Twilight, all while Rainbow Dash remains staring at the ceiling with her hands behind her head.

“Oh, yeah, totally. Its not like Celestia would put an idiot as our team leader. That's just retarded,” says Rainbow Dash.

Octavia presses her iron down on her blouse and starts rubbing it in slow, gentle circles, intensely watching the wrinkles being flattened away. “People do make mistakes. Perhaps Celestia made one with Flash.”

Out in the hallway, Flash peers through a crack in the door, watching his team relaxing in their own way, but after Octavia's statement he lowers his eyes and closes the door as quietly as he can. Once it clicks shut he turns around and comes face to face with Pinkie Pie and her tired, baggy and very wonked out eyes and creepy smile.

“Hi,” says Pinkie Pie.

Flash leans back slightly. “Eh... hi.”

“It has been thirty three days since we last spoke. How have you been?”

Flash blinks. “Fine. Um, are you okay?”

“Absolutely not. I am running on five minutes of sleep and Trixie's stash of energy drinks.” She holds up a tall, half empty can with a silhouette of a Thunderbird on it. She then takes a large gulp of it, gasps, and shudders, and she holds out the can to Flash, shaking it enticingly. “Do you want to taste the magic?”

“No. You should probably get some sleep. You look like you're about to crash.”

“Oh, I know I'm about to crash. I can feel it in every bone and muscle and hair in my body. You look like you need a nap, too.”

“No, I'm okay.”

“Meh, suit yourself. But you didn't answer my question. Are you good, are you bad, are you great, what are you?”

Flash sniffs, calmly takes Pinkie Pie's energy drink and sets it down on the floor by his foot, and she fidgets in her spot and scratches her hair like a feral animal.

“I'm thinking those energy drinks were a bad idea,” says Pinkie Pie. She pulls her hand away and grimaces at the pink strands, and after shaking them off she smiles at Flash. “So, how's life?”

“Well,” begins Flash. He looks behind him and then with a deep sigh he looks at his feet. “It could be better. I mean, I messed up big time. I did something very stupid and now Thorn's got me on a leash and Twilight won't talk to me, anymore.”

Flash closes his eyes and slides down the wall, rubbing his hands down his face. When his hands are off, his reddening eyes are peering at the carpet once more.

“I'm starting this whole thing was a mistake,” says Flash. “I'm starting to think that I really am a failure and nothing will fix it.”

“Nope,” says Pinkie Pie.

“No?” says Flash, snapping his eyes to her.

“Nope. You're a leader, now. You are not allowed to be a failure.”

“But what if I failed as a leader?”

Pinkie Pie thinks for a moment. “Nope.”

“You aren't exactly the easiest one to talk to about these things.”

“Nope,” says Pinkie Pie with a smile.

Flash shakes his head and looks away as Pinkie Pie takes a seat next to him, still fidgeting and drumming her fingers against each other.

“Look, Flash, you may be a failure in your eyes and the eyes of other people, but you cannot afford to be a failure to your team,” says Pinkie Pie. “I can think you suck, the school can think you suck, heck, the whole world can think you suck, but the only ones that should matter are your teammates. Just ignore everybody else and focus on what is best for your team. You have to lead and protect them with everything you got, and sitting out here, moping and wishing things were different won't actually do anything. If you want Twilight to talk to you again, if you want Thorn to stop being a pill, if you want things to get better then you got to take charge and make those wishes happen or else everything will remain the same. But for the record, I don't think you suck.”

There is a moment of silence between the two. Flash finds himself staring at Pinkie Pie's stern expression with wide eyed wonder, and she will not look away from him. This silence goes on for a few seconds before Flash speaks.

“Wow. That... that was surprising, coming from you,” says Flash.

Pinkie Pie's stern face breaks into a smile, and she giggles and playfully pokes at him. “Hey, don't be mean.”

Flash chuckles. “I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be mean. I'm just saying that those words were unexpected, especially since you are... well, you're you. There isn't another girl like you, and what you said really did not fit you.”

“I thought it fit me pretty good.”

Flash smiles and looks down, shaking his head as a little laugh escapes him. “All right, then.” He looks at her again a second or two later. “Have you been reading those leadership books that librarian has suggested, by any chance?”

Pinkie Pie bobs her head, humming thoughtfully. “Kinda. I mean, I read some, noted some, and tried a trust exercise with my team that one of the books said to do, but I accidentally dropped Rarity, so she's kinda mad at me about that.”

Flash's brows scrunch in tune with his confused frown, and Pinkie Pie stares up at the ceiling, lips puckered and fingers stroking her chin.

“But, what really bugs me is that she will not accept an apology. Or make one. It is really weird,” says Pinkie Pie. She then shrugs her shoulders, drops her hand down and folds her hands across her stomach as she stretches her legs out. “Oh, well. I'm sure she'll come around, soon enough.”

Flash looks ahead at the overly decorated door of Team PART(ie). “I'm sure she will, too.” After some peaceful silence, Flash looks at Pinkie Pie. “Hey, I got a question.”

“I might have an answer,” says Pinkie Pie.

“Why do you want to be a Huntress?”

Pinkie Pie's relaxation hardens, and a frown hooks on her face. “I don't.”

Flash blinks, but before he can probe her response she uses his shoulder to help her hop up. Once up, she stumbles back and has to place a hand on the wall to keep herself up, and Flash looks at her with worry.

“Are you all right?” asks Flash.

“Oh, yeah. My head just got a little spinny for a second. You know how that is, right?” says Pinkie Pie.

“I... guess?”

“Sweet.” She kneels down in front of Flash and presses her finger against his nose, grinning devilishly. A look that is obviously forced. “By the way, you still owe me an ice pack and a back rub.”

“Seriously?”

Pinkie Pie nods and Flash sighs.

“Okay, fine. I'm sure we can work something out,” says Flash.

“Goody!” Pinkie Pie stands up and walks backwards while waving farewell. “Night, night, Flash.”

Flash holds up a two fingered wave. “Good night, Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie reaches her door, stops, turns around, and with two large skips she lands in front of Flash again, kneeling with her hand out, thus making him scrunch into the wall.

“Another by the way, do you happen to have seventy five cents I can borrow?” asks Pinkie Pie.

“Um.” Flash digs in his pockets and pulls out a handful of change. After a quick count he puts the remainder back in his pocket out and holds the requested amount to her. “Here.”

“Thanks!” Pinkie Pie snatches the change and stands up, beaming. “I'll pay you back the first chance I get!”

Flash nods and Pinkie Pie bounces over to her door. After she unlocks the door, she looks at Flash, smiles and winks, and throws the door open hard enough for it to bang against the wall, making her team jump from their spots around a Scrabble board.

“Guess who's back!” blurts Pinkie Pie. She then slams the door shut, shaking the wall and the words from her muffled voice can still be understood. “And I got money!”

Flash cannot help but smile at that, and with a great deal of weight fading from his chest and shoulders, he stands up, sighing contently and braces himself to face his girls. However, as soon as his keycard is put in the slot his phone buzzes. Flash freezes, and when his phone buzzes again he sighs heavily and shakes his head as he pulls out his little brick of a flip phone.

“Asshole. Line 1” scrolls across the little screen and Flash groans quietly and hesitantly answers the phone.

“What?” says Flash.

“That's no way to talk to a friend,” says Thorn.

“You're no friend.”

“How ungrateful. I keep your future safe and this is how you thank me?”

Flash steps away from his door, growling. “What do you want?”

“I was actually thinking that you have been a huge help to me, and now that my grades are good this can be our last hurrah.”

“Just spill it, already.”

“I need you to catch me some terrorjackers.”

Flash balks. “What? No, screw that!” He jabs his finger at the air and glares ahead as if Thorn is standing in front of him. “If you want those things you can get them yourself!”

“Relax. According to that paper you wrote, terrorjackers sleep heavy during the night, so you just grab a box, snag a nest, put the nest in a box and leave it at the edge of the Seasons Trail.”

“No, I'm not-”

“I got Faustsend's office number on speed-dial. Get me those jackers or your future goes bye-bye. Its one last job, man. You'll be free after all this, so either you do this and never hear from me again or it is a one way ticket out of here.”

Flash stares ahead at the blank wall, body quivering face red and scrunched and his phone case cracking underneath his grip.

“I knew you'd see things the right way. Have a good night, buddy. It's going to be a long day, tomorrow,” says Thorn.

The other end clicks off, flooding Flash's ear with dial tone, and he slams the phone shut, inhaling deeply through his nose and exhaling just as heavy as he grips his phone with both hands. He glances over his shoulder at his door, looking at the light spilling out from beneath it, and then he looks outside to the darkening world. He swallows, takes one last look at the light, and then with a heavy sigh he reluctantly ventures out into the darkness.